Health chiefs at a Teesside trust today admitted they were facing a "difficult year ahead" after a forecasted £2m overspend for the current financial year.

Health chiefs at a Teesside trust today admitted they were facing a "difficult year ahead" after a forecasted £2m overspend for the current financial year.

But the South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust is hoping extra cash secured from Tees and Durham Health Authorities can keep any impact on patient services to a "minimum".

The trust said it would be reviewing its services to tackle the overspend.

It is the first time the trust - which runs the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough General Hospital and the North Riding Infirmary - has failed to balance its books.

Growing numbers of patients and the increasing cost of drugs were pinpointed as two major causes for the overspend.

But local health watchdogs, the South Tees Community Health Council, blamed the Government for demanding too much of trusts without putting up enough cash to meet those demands.

And it warned the only short-term solution to the cash crisis was a "massive injection" of Government money to give South Tees Trust "a bit of breathing space".

Steve Anderson, the hospital trust's director of finance, said: "We are disappointed to forecast a £2m overspend at the end of the financial year out of a total budget of £192m.

"Like many hospitals facing similar financial pressures, it is a challenging time for us.

"It has been another very busy year with more patients being treated. A further pressure was the increasing cost of drugs within the acute sector.

"We recognise we face a difficult year ahead but we hope any impact on patient services will be kept to a minimum.

"We have spoken to Tees Health Authority and County Durham, who have agreed to provide us with extra funding to achieve the financial target. This will have to be repaid next year and we are now in the middle of setting a budget for 2002/2003."

The Trust has already carried out a review, taking a "fresh look" at how it delivers services to patients, he said.

Peter Johnson, chief officer of South Tees Community Health Council, said "with the best will in the world" this year's funding from the Government "didn't get near" the amount South Tees Trust needed to deliver its services.

The trust needed millions more "to meet the targets it is supposed to" and deliver the services for patients the Government says it should, he said.

"When the NHS is running up to 105pc capacity, you just don't get the chance to find ways to do things better. The short-term answer is a massive injection of money to build breathing space for people to deliver these services."

Other health trusts on Teesside were expecting to meet end-of-year targets.

A spokesman for North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust said: "We are anticipating hitting financial targets."

For the Tees, East and North Yorkshire NHS Trust, director of finance Colin Martin, said: "As a result of a financial recovery plan implemented in the summer, the trust will break even without any impact on services."